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DON’T MISS!: HANDS OFF
‘It was very depressing. I was very discouraged,” Dorit Chrysler says of her first time playing the theremin. The Austrian-born East Villager is a founder of the NY Theremin Society — which is playing at Joe’s Pub Wednesday.
For the uninitiated, Chrysler describes the electronic instrument’s sound as “very expressive, similar to a singing saw. Most people,” she says, “might have heard the theremin sound in ‘Good Vibrations’ or from horror movies from the ’40s and ’50s.”
With classical piano, flute and time with a rock band in her background, Chrysler picked up the theremin after seeing a documentary about its inventor.
“I sort of felt pity for the instrument. No one took it seriously, everyone made fun of it. And the challenge to hit a note right was just so demanding, it was really appealing. It had something quixotic about it,” she says.
The Joe’s Pub show — dubbed “The Untouchables” because players don’t touch but wave their fingers over the instrument to play it — will include some Beatles, Henry Mancini and original compositions. Tickets, $15. 9:30 p.m. at 425 Lafayette St.; 212-967-7555, joespub.com.
— Billy Heller

CHECK IT OUT!: BIG NEWS
Famous for their size and marveled at for their mystique, the world’s most massive mammals are getting some NYC love with “Whales: Giants of the Deep,” opening today at the American Museum of Natural History. Curated in collaboration with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the exhibit includes a 58-foot-long sperm-whale skeleton, centuries-old whale-bone artifacts, and a replica of a blue whale’s giant heart designed for kids to crawl through. The dolphin, a fellow sea mammal, is also represented. A short film on New Zealand’s storied Maori whale riders is a must-see, too. “Whales are very important to our traditions and our culture,” says Rhonda Paku, a senior curator at the New Zealand museum. “Our tribes speak of whales guiding our canoes through the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand . . . and of ancestors arriving on the backs of whales.” Not a bad way to travel! 200 Central Park West; amnh.org.
— Leah Faye Cooper

WATCH IT!: HEAVEN CAN’T WAIT
“Michael Cimino’s
‘Heaven’s Gate’ is one of the most stunningly photographed films ever made in this country,’’ I wrote in a review 23 years ago that went on to call it “a textbook example of how not to tell a story.’’ With a critical horsewhipping from many other reviewers, too, the (then-record) $44 million mega-flop was blamed for killing off United Artists as an independent studio and practically finishing off the Western. But it’s been finding young champions in recent years, and Film Forum has booked a one-week run beginning today for a new digital restoration. It’s the full 216-minute version of the historically inspired epic pitting cattlemen against farmers. Despite a cast that includes Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert and Jeff Bridges, the film may not be any more coherent than in 1980. But Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography looks better than ever. Houston and Varick streets. Info: filmforum.org.
— Lou Lumenick

courtesy Everett Collection

GET A TASTE!: STIRRING THE POT
“It fits all the cooking that we do,” Toby Rodriguez says of the simple black cast-iron pot, explaining that Cajuns have long relied on it to slow-cook traditional fare over high heat. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, Rodriguez, who Anthony Bourdain called a “Cajun renaissance man,” will be cooking “black pot suppers” as part of the Freetown Produce Festival, a Cajun food, music and dancing extravaganza at Red Hook’s Jalopy Theatre. He’ll start cooking each day at noon in a 2-foot-wide black pot, and will offer informal, hands-on cooking classes throughout the day. “I might be putting you to work stirring the pot,” he says. “You might be going to get a round of beers.” After all of that work (and revelry), dinner — catfish court bouillon tonight, cabbage rolls with homemade sausage tomorrow and gumbo Sunday — starts at 6 p.m. each night.
From $15 for supper only. 315 Columbia St., Red Hook; 718-395-3214, jalopy.biz.
— Hailey Eber

Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley

GO HERE!: PUSHING PETALS
The 6-foot flowery flamingos of past years have flown the coop. Their replacement: an Indian painted elephant festooned with thousands of blooms — including hydrangeas, yarrow and kalanchoe. We’re talking, of course, about the 39th annual Macy’s Flower Show, which sets up shop Sunday in a giant heated tent outside the Broadway side of the store.
“I don’t think people have ever seen this many flowers in one space,” boasts Robin Hall, the floral fest’s executive producer for the past decade, of the estimated 1 million flowers.
This year’s theme, “The Painted Garden,” evokes rich images of exotic locales way beyond Midtown. “It’s inspired by the colors and liveliness of the subcontinent,” says Hall. “You’ll see intense, beautiful jewel colors in flowers from six continents — orchids from Brazil, tropical plants from Africa.”
To put it all together, it took a team of 400 — who assembled some 30,000 varieties of plants and flowers in the tent and the store — and you can see it for free through April 7; macys.com/flowershow.
— Doree Lewak